A towering park bench – 10 feet in the air on metal stilts – has appeared mysteriously out of nowhere bolted to a traffic island on East Houston Street. The precarious stilt-bench – erected between Suffolk and Clinton streets – had passers-by scratching their heads yesterday, both befuddled and amused at the latest addition to the neighborhood.

“It’s kind of cool,” said Josh Collins, 23. “It makes the Lower East Side more unique.”

It’s unclear who built the bench. Residents disagreed on whether the piece should be thought of as art or a simple oddity.

“I do consider it art,” said passer-by Alexa Caesar, 19. “It’s cool looking. I don’t know if I’d put it in my apartment, but it’s definitely acceptable for a New York City street.”

Annetta Puleo, 28, wasn’t so sure.

“I have no idea what it is. Maybe it’s art. You cer tainly don’t sit on it,” she said.

“I like it,” said Walter Wlodarczyk, who re ferred to the bench as “public art.”

“It’s sort of absurd, this bench that’s out of reach. I hope they leave it. Al though it doesn’t look too sturdy,” he added.

Ted Timbers, spokes man for the city Depart ment of Transportation, said the agency will soon decide whether to take it down.